The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ. You will have to register before you can post or view full size images in the forums.

First two maps, Hi y'all

Hey so I found this forum through reddit and found some of the tutorials on it and got really into my first map. Liking how it turned out I made a much more ambitious second map. No labels or cities yet but I just want to share, and what better place to share than the site I found the tutorials on

So I created these maps in photoshop CS5 following the Seradin Map Tutorial, only deviating a little bit with my settings. I used a Bamboo pen tablet for most of my painting and a small brush to get the detail right. This was my first map and it took about hours total (including two lost hours due to a BSOD)imgurmirror

After the fun of building that map I decided to make an entire planet at 4000x2000 resolution: Centarus, it took a total of 12 hours to create and I had one catastrophic data loss back to just my recovered black-white outline and one contained data loss to a backup. I used the same general technique, making the mountains a bit darker to add to the feeling of height. I still don't like the rivers too much. I also sketched out ocean currents, winds, and tectonic plates (all lost ) and used them to dictate the terrain and climate of the planet. I imagine it about 3/4 the size of earth.imgurmirror
Sorry for the compressed JPG, I had to cut some quality so it would fit on the server. The only missing details are really the ice cracks in the tundra areas. The very dark green areas are jungles while the lighter green are temperate forests.
If anyone wants a full res copy I'm sure I can figure something out.